Police Chase Down Parolee Spotted Breaking Into East Village Home

By DNAinfo Staff on January 18, 2014 9:13am

Johnny Mejias, 50, of the 3500 block of West McLean Avenue, was charged with a residential burglary felony and is due in court Saturday. He was also charged with two misdemeanors: criminal damage to property and resisting or obstructing an officer.
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Chicago Police Department

CHICAGO — A parolee with a 30-year history of burglaries was chased down by police Friday morning after he broke into an East Village home Friday morning.

Johnny Mejias, a 50-year-old who lives in the 3500 block of West McLean Avenue in Logan Square, was charged with a residential burglary felony and is due in court Saturday. He was also charged with two misdemeanors: criminal damage to property and resisting or obstructing an officer.

The incident occurred in the 900 block of North Winchester Avenue about 11:15 a.m. when cops received a call about a burglary, according to a police statement.

Police saw Mejias exit a window and run into a gangway, before climbing a garage and jumping from roof to roof, police said.

A standoff ensued until a police officer tried to get him down using a Taser, which failed to injure the man, police said.

Eventually, he jumped down, leading cops on a short foot chase before they arrested him.

A witness identified him as the man who forced open a window of a home. Police found burglar tools and property stolen from the home, which was later returned to the owner.

Mejias has a lengthy criminal history, which dates back to an 1984 arrest that resulted in a three-year sentence after being convicted for burglary and attempted burglary, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records.

In 1998 he was arrested again and sentenced to four years on home invasion, aggravated battery of a senior citizen and attempted residential burglary convictions.

His most latest conviction came after a 2008 residential burglary arrest that landed him a 10-year prison sentence. He was paroled last January.